From Brain Pickings a few days ago…

On September 7th, 1982, Ogilvy sent the following internal memo to all agency employees, titled “How to Write”:

The better you write, the higher you go in Ogilvy & Mather. People who think well, write well.

Woolly minded people write woolly memos, woolly letters and woolly speeches.

Good writing is not a natural gift. You have to learn to write well. Here are 10 hints:

1. Read the Roman-Raphaelson book on writing. Read it three times.

2. Write the way you talk. Naturally.

3. Use short words, short sentences and short paragraphs.

4. Never use jargon words like reconceptualize, demassification, attitudinally, judgmentally. They are hallmarks of a pretentious ass.

5. Never write more than two pages on any subject.

6. Check your quotations.

7. Never send a letter or a memo on the day you write it. Read it aloud the next morning — and then edit it.

8. If it is something important, get a colleague to improve it.

9. Before you send your letter or your memo, make sure it is crystal clear what you want the recipient to do.

10. If you want ACTION, don’t write. Go and tell the guy what you want.

David

Having recently purchased (at a ridiculous price) a scarce first edition of his unpublished writings, I find myself once more in the company of the colorful Mr. O.  Whenever I come to Ogilvy for inspiration, whenever fails to teach me something new, and I leave the richer for the time spent with him.

Radio advertisers and radio professionals: linger over number ten.  See if it doesn’t smack you between the eyes, as it did me:

If you want ACTION, don’t write.  Go and tell the guy what you want.

Tell the guy.

SPEECH, not writing, is still man’s primary form of communication.  Print, in all its forms, whether “texting” or “posting” or newspaper advertising or whatever, is still just an approximation, an imitation, of human speech.

Words well chosen, especially when spoken, have a unique power to compel to action.

More than a few radio advertisers know the truth of this.

"Word-of-mouth is my best advertising."

“I don’t need to advertise.  I rely on word-of-mouth. My customers tell their friends.”   

How often have you heard those words spoken by a business owner, in response to an advertising pitch?

The fact is, personal referrals and recommendations are powerful. We find them especially helpful when considering the purchase of a product or service from a new or unfamiliar source.

Successful online retailers from Amazon to WalMart understand the value of customer ratings and recommendations, which they prominently place on their product pages.

Ebay carved out a new retail channel, where strangers could buy from strangers in confidence, based on the ratings and testimonials of other strangers.  Yes, it sounds funny, but it works.

And it all boils down to word-of-mouth.

We prefer buying from people and companies we trust.  And trust is developed over time, on the basis of familiarity and experience.

But when we’re looking at doing business with someone for the first time, we seek confirmation from friends and colleagues who have already done business with them, relying on their experience and familiarity with the situation.

In other words, we rely on word-of-mouth, too.

For those of us in radio advertising, “word of mouth” has a special significance. It is, after all, how we earn our living. The primary tool of our trade—indeed, mankind’s primary means of communication— is human speech.

As a young radio AE in Winona, Minnesota decades ago, I was part of a successful sales team, trained by the legendary Jim Williams. One day we sat down in a sales meeting to craft a flip-chart type presentation (using index cards for portability). We started with three major topics: “Why Advertise?” followed by “Why Radio?” and finally, “Why (Our Station)?” Under each of these categories we wrote out succinct propositions to build our case, one thought at a time.

The final three cards in our presentation were: 

“Word of Mouth Advertising Works Best.”  [Hearty agreement from prospect on this point]

“We Have the Biggest Mouth In Town.“  [Aren't we cute?]

“Put Us to Work for You!”  [Cue the trumpets and chorus of angels]

Upon laying down the last card, we’d pull out the proposals and demo tapes we’d prepared for the client and begin the conversation in earnest. It proved to be an effective tool for opening relationships and closing sales.

Now, all of this serves as a rather lengthy introduction to the real topic under consideration: the power of testimonials in advertising and marketing.

You’ve probably created commercials built around customer testimonials. Hopefully, they worked well for you.

Unfortunately even the most well-meaning customer, reading from a script, can be reduced to ridiculous in seconds.   Worse yet is the spot that purports to feature a “satisfied customer,” played by a staff announcer or an office assistant coaxed into the production studio to voice the role.  (Incidentally, fraudulent testimonials, no matter how innocuous or well-intentioned, violate the Federal Trade Commission’s Truth-in-Advertising laws. Google it.)

Roy H. Williams likens testimonials to nitroglycerine. Done well, they’ll produce explosive results. Done poorly, they’ll blow up in your face.

Producing credible, effective testimonial ads is time-consuming and often tedious work.  A single commercial can take hours to produce.  For example, here’s the first commercial in a campaign I produced for an Idaho ophthalmologist, one of the top-rated eye surgeons in America, whose specialties include bladeless LASIK surgery, cataracts, and multifocal lens implants.

Rod is a real person with a real story, and I think you’ll agree that he comes across as authentic and believable. But that 60-second commercial was cobbled together from an interview with Rod that lasted over an hour, a separate interview with Dr. Leach that took 20-30 minutes, and a combination of scripted material and impromptu coaching for his nurse, who also serves as narrator of the spot. Finding, editing, and combining all the sound bites used in the spot involved another two to three hours in the studio.  As I said, time-consuming and tedious. But necessary.

Now, I might have saved considerable time by simply writing a script for Rod and asking him to read it.   How do you think that would have worked out? Can you hear the spot in your mind’s ear?

Let me help.  Here’s the client’s earlier attempt to capture another patient’s story.  Meet Meredith, in her own words, as recorded and mixed by a busy production person at a local radio station prior to my involvement, just as it was sent to me by the client.

Perhaps the producer was in a hurry; perhaps he just didn’t care.  Fortunately the client realized that even though Meredith’s story is true, the spot sounds more like shilling than storytelling.

Based on my work with Rod,  the client asked me to interview Meredith and see if we couldn’t tell her story more naturally and credibly.  Here’s how it turned out:

Radio is a wonderful medium for telling your story.  Word-of-mouth really is powerful.   Learn how to harness and control it, and word-of-mouth truly will be your best advertising.

P.S.  The irrepressibly insightful Phil Bernstein, formerly a radio AE with Clear Channel/Portland, Oregon, now a TV road warrior for Jim Doyle & Associates, recently shared a few observations on “the testimonial that writes itself.”  Spot-on, as usual with Phil, and well worth reading!

             Mosquitos suck.

They’re tiny.

They’re irritating.

And they’re inevitable.

Even if you’re fortunate enough to live in an area where these biting insects aren’t a problem (does such a place exist?), you still face the scourge of metaphorical mosquitos – the pesky little problems that gang up on us and, too often, rob us of the enjoyment of life.

Decades ago a Houston pastor contrasted the less frequent but decidedly more serious trials of life (“the charge of the elephant”) with the less serious but much more frequent problems we face (“the charge of the mosquito”).  I’d never before imagined mosquitos as charging.  And I’ve never forgotten the illustration.

Sales trainer and professional speaker Chris Lytle once told us a story about his having missed a plane connection due to circumstances beyond his control.  He was going to arrive late for his own speaking engagement.   This was many years ago, before cell phones, and there was no way he could inform his host or attendees of the delay.  All Chris could do was fume and stew on the plane, his hands tied and situation unchangeable.

Then he had an epiphany.

He realized that the only thing all his fuming was accomplishing was to make himself miserable – emotionally, mentally, even physically.  There was nothing constructive about it.  Then and there, he determined to make the best of the situation and not make matters worse by indulging in self-induced misery.  Chris chose to isolate his situation.  He recast it in a different light by characterizing it with a single word:

Inconvenient.

It wasn’t the worst thing that had ever happened, or would ever happen to him.

He wasn’t in a hospital, let alone on his deathbed.

He hadn’t lost a loved one.

He wasn’t in dire straits.

His career wasn’t over.

He was simply running late for an appointment, through no fault of his own.

People would understand.  Life would go on.

An temporary inconvenience.  Nothing more.

Faced with similar mosquito-sized attacks over the years, I’ve found it helpful to remember Chris’ description.  So, when I received an email awhile back that contained an article someone had passed along to a client on the subject of mosquitos, it resonated with me and I found myself recalling Chris’ story.

Perhaps it will prove meaningful to you, too.

Why mosquitoes stop happiness:

In his Book “High Energy Habits” author Bill Ford talks
about “Getting rid of the little things that annoy you.”

I like to think of the little things that annoy you as being
like mosquitoes.  They are pesky, irritating and drain you
of energy you could use far more productively on other things.

Here are some of the common little things that annoy many people.

• A loose or missing button on an article of clothing
• Email backlog
• A dripping tap
• Mould around your bath or shower
• Light bulbs that need replacing
• Things that need to be returned to shops
• No room in filing cabinet
• Drawers that don’t close properly
• House not finished
• Garden needing weeding
• Magazines waiting to be read
• And many more.

Often these ‘mosquitoes’ are some minor annoyance or
irritant that that you are tolerating, but are not happy about.

Usually you know what to do to fix it, but you have just not
yet got around to doing it.  Then before you know it, months
and sometimes years have passed and the irritant is still there.

So you almost don’t notice the dripping tap, the loose door handle,
the light bulb that keeps shorting out and more.

You just work around them.

When you start to notice these mosquitoes you will see there
can be a lot of them.

Bill Ford suggests that you imagine that all of the little jobs
around the house requiring attention have a Post-It note
attached: the bills say ‘pay me’, the magazines say ‘read me’,
the stain says ‘clean me’, and the papers say ‘file me’ and so on.

Now imagine that as you move through your home that each
note has a naggy whiny voice saying ‘me, me, me, me!’

The voice are all different but all of them are grating
on your nerves.

And as you have a cup of coffee, read the paper, get ready
for work, some part of you is engaged in saying ‘later, later,
later, not important enough, no time right now’.

We are so busy that these little things do not seem to
justify a high priority.

But it takes energy to ignore the mosquitoes and it also
reduces our enjoyment of what ever else we are doing
at the same time.

The wasted five star hotel room:

Imagine you have just paid a large amount of money
to stay in a luxury five star hotel room. The room is
magnificent and has every luxury you could possible
want.

You lie down to sleep in the superbly comfortable bed
and suddenly you hear a mosquito start to buzz.

You turn on the light and because the hotel ceiling is
so high you can’t get the mosquito.  It buzzes in your
ear all night and you just can’t sleep.

The five star hotel room has been wasted and all
because of one tiny mosquito.

This experience happened to a friend of mine Des Moss
and prompted him to write: “If you think small things
don’t bother you, just try sleeping with a mosquito” 

This experience is exactly what life is like when it is
full of these little annoyances.

Here’s the solution Bill gives:

1: Take 10 minutes and make a list of all the little things
in your life that annoy you.

You can even make two lists if you want to.

One list can be for work and one list can be for your
personal life.

Add to each list over time. You will start to notice
more and more things that are not quite the way
you would like them to be.

2: Pick two easy ‘mosquitoes’ and deal with them today.
By ‘easy’ I mean items where you know all you need to
know in order to fix them and also won’t take too long.

These could be things like clean your car, sew on a button,
replace a light bulb and so on.

Notice how it feels when you have fixed each of these two
little irritations.

Then keep going and pick at least two more ‘mosquitoes’
for another day.

The momentum will build.  Even if you don’t get the thing
that irritates you fixed make sure you at least write it down.

Example:

I used this strategy myself and in ten minutes I came up
with 15 little things that annoyed me around my home.

I managed to eliminate three of these pesky irritations
that same day. One was an overdue library book I needed
to return. I put it in my car and dropped in into the library
a few hours later.

It was so simple to do, yet I had put it off for a week.

I felt so much better after fixing these three annoying
little things in my life.

So one way to create more happiness in your life is to
get rid of some of the ‘mosquitoes’ that bug you and see
how good it feels.

Action Exercise:

Make a list of at least 10-20 little things in your life that
irritate you in some way. Then take action on two of
these things today and notice how you feel.

Nonetheless, it’s worth sharing.

Thinking about recent client success stories and how best to share them at RSC reminded me of this presentation I cobbled together (when we were still recording on 4-track tapes) to share some of my clients’ success stories with prospective advertisers. It was our local implementation of the RAB’s original “Radio Gets Results” initiative some fifteen years ago.

Back then, I’d give a copy of the cassette tape to a new potential client and ask him to listen to it in the car, driving to or from work. It proved an effective means of establishing credibility with new prospects, and opened many opportunities to help them with their advertising.

Today, a presentation of this sort would likely be posted on a station’s own website, probably via video uploaded to You Tube and pushed to other social networks.

Running time’s about nine minutes, which is 7 minutes longer than I’d make it today. Face it, we live in an era of short attention spans.  Better to have more testimonials in a shorter format, methinks.

That said, the clients and their stories were/are real.

I ended up in advertising.

Mind you, I’m not complaining.  Advertising and marketing involve a great deal of reading and writing, consulting and coaching.  So, it’s not all that far removed from teaching.  It’s just a different kind of classroom.

Reason I mention the English major thing is because I’m going to climb up on my soapbox and rant a bit.

About grammar.

And spelling.

And punctuation.

Because if you’re going to invest your hard-earned money on advertising, or if you’re going to take the time to write a blog or send a newsletter, you most certainly don’t want the things you write leaving others with a poor impression.

I happen to live in a college town, where one might reasonably expect to find a higher level of education among its citizens, or at least a proclivity for maintaining high standards in the area of communication, especially in our mother tongue.

One had better be prepared for disappointment.

I see with astonishing frequency newspaper headlines, articles, and advertisements (created by the newspaper’s own employees); reader board signs on businesses; posters on bulletin boards; business cards, brochures, newsletters and professional correspondence, etc., rife with errors in spelling, punctuation, grammar and syntax.

The widespread use of texting and email has fostered a tendency toward sloppiness, the former through its use of abominable abbreviations (“Hpe UR w/me on ths, K?”) and the latter by its disdain for proper punctuation, e.g., the non-use of capital letters at the beginning of sentences and of periods when bringing that sentence to a full stop. (instead we like just run our thoughts together kind of like this and i hope you’re following what i’m sayin OK because i havent got a lot of time to be treating this like a letter i mean after all its just email right?  hey see you later ‘K?  bye”)

Ugh.

Should an email, particularly a business email, be accorded the same treatment as a conventional letter, typed or hand-written?

Absolutely.

Should a blog post be checked for spelling, grammar, and punctuation before sending it into the ether?

Of course.

Do you recall hearing the radio spot for a learning product called Verbal Advantage? It began, “People do judge you by the words you use.”  Why?  Because it’s true.  They do.

The famous direct response copywriter Maxwell Sackheim made a fortune selling the mail order Sherwin Cody English Course by means of newspaper and magazine ads that grabbed readers with the headline: “Do You Make These Mistakes in English?” Considered one of the top advertising campaigns of all time, the Sherwin Cody ad ran (largely unchanged) for over 40 years, because it pulled in business.  And why?  Because most people make mistakes in English!

That doesn’t mean you and I have to do so.  But we can’t fix something if we don’t recognize it as broken.  So, let’s look at the most common errors, with a view toward eliminating them in our advertising and correspondence.

ITS vs. IT’S

It’s is a contraction of “It is.”  Whereas its is the possessive form of the neuter pronoun. If in doubt, remember that there should be consistency with its masculine and feminine counterparts; think: “his, hers, its,” or “he’s, she’s, it’s.” See how nicely they fit?

THE ERRANT APOSTROPHE: CONFUSING POSSESSIVES WITH PLURALS

This is a close relative of the previous problem.  I alluded to it in the title of this blog post, writing “Mistake’s” instead of Mistakes.  This problem is so pervasive, there are even websites dedicated to exposing it!  This, more than any other error in punctuation, makes the offender look like…well, a hick.  There, I said it.  I’m sorry.  But it’s true.

Honestly, if this needs further explanation, a class in remedial English may be worth considering.

THERE, THEIR, and THEY’RE

One’s a place, one’s a possessive, and one’s a contraction. No reason to confuse or misuse them.

ACCEPT vs. EXCEPT

The former means to take, the latter means to leave out.  Accept no exceptions.

AFFECT vs. EFFECT

When used as verbs, the former means to influence, the latter to bring about a result.  My words may affect your next blog post, but their effect remains to be seen.

PRINCIPAL vs. PRINCIPLE

Principal means main, first in importance; principal is also the title given to heads of schools or business partnerships. Principle is a rule, proposition, or governing belief.

OF vs. HAVE

I would have preferred not to bring this up, but whenever I see something like: “I would of come to your party if I’d known about it,” it makes me want to throttle the person who wrote it, bless her heart.  Need I say more?

DIFFERENT THAN vs. DIFFERENT FROM

This will be a bone of contention in some quarters, but I side with the purists.  Technically, one thing differs FROM another. It does not differ THAN another.  Therefore, my opinion will be different from the opinions of others who don’t see the problem.

MANGLED AND MISCONSTRUED EXPRESSIONS (PHRASEOLOGY 101)

It’s “one and the same” and not ”one in the same.”

“By and large,” not ”by in large” (although if you’re giving somebody shopping instructions, as for clothing, “buy in large” might fly).

“For all intents and purposes” is correct; notice the symmetry between intent and purpose.  There’s no such thing as an intensive purpose.  So, please don’t say “for all intensive purposes,” okay?

“Unique” means “one of a kind.”  Literally.  It is not a comparative.  It is not a superlative. It is an absolute. Therefore, it is incorrect to say that something is “more unique” or “one of the most unique…”

JUST IN CASE, NO MIXED CASES

When used as the subjects of a sentence, the correct personal pronouns are “he,” “she,” “I,” “we,” and “they.” When used as objects, direct or indirect, they are “him,”, “her,” “me,” “us,” and “them.” Be careful when combining pronouns in a sentence to keep the cases consistent.  For example, you might be inclined to say, ”They’re going to meet Sheila and I after work.”  It should be “Sheila and me.”

An easy technique one can use to avoid making this mistake is, in this example, to leave Sheila out of it.  You wouldn’t say, “They’re going to meet I after work.” It sounds stupid.  Adding “Sheila and” to the sentence won’t make it any less so.  ”They’re going to meet me after work” is the way you’d really say it, right?  Well, you can insert “Sheila and” and it will still be right.  Got it?  Good.  Let’s move on.

* * * * *

I keep quite a few reference works at hand when I sit down to write.  Some, like my thirty-year-old Songwriter’s Rhyming Dictionary (which, having survived the 1987 fire that gutted the radio station, I had rebound, though it still smells faintly of smoke), might not be all that useful to you unless you are writing poetry or a radio commercial. 

However, I can recommend without hesitation two excellent and accessible volumes:

EATS SHOOTS & LEAVES by Lynne Truss is both an engaging read and valuable guide to proper punctuation.

COMMON ERRORS IN ENGLISH USAGE by Paul Brians, a former Pullman resident and Professor of English at Washington State University, is a gem!  It will enable you to avoid the most common pitfalls in spelling, grammar, pronunciation, and usage of our native language.

Words, whether spoken or written, are the currency of communication. Invest them wisely; spend them well.

My 2004 Radio Mercury Award

Each year since 2004 I’ve retained copies of my best radio work from the previous year, with a view toward entering them in radio’s premiere creative competition, The Radio-Mercury Awards.

My 2010-11 folder contains some 15 commercials from which I’d hoped to cull one or two entries.  I think they’re good spots; more importantly, so did the advertisers that paid for them.

But are they Mercury material?

Up until the last year or two, I’d have gladly gambled a few entry fees (at $125 a pop) in the hopes that one of them, at least, would pass muster with the judges and make it into the final round.

This year?  Probably not.

I received an email from the Mercury Awards folks recently in which Portland, OR radio friend and 2003 Mercury winner Doug Zanger weighs in on what it takes for a radio commercial to find favor with the judges.

Quoting from it:

A 15-year veteran in radio, creativity and media, Radio Mercury Awards winner and Mercury judge Doug Zanger shares his thoughts on what Radio stations need to know before entering the Radio Mercury Awards. Here’s part one:

On what appeals to judges: The judges are looking for creativity. Creativity can be lots of things. It can be serious; it can be funny; it can even be sound effects. In my opinion, it all starts with the writing. It just has to make an impact…It needs to make people stop and think, “Wow, I really need to listen to this.” If you have something that touts the power of Radio, that tends to be something that is appreciated and liked.

What turns off judges? Yelling, unless it’s ironic. Overproduction. Simplicity is what can make a good spot. Production people need to think about the spots that may have taken them a little longer to create. Maybe they spent more time with it … maybe the concept was outside of the usual “rip and read.” If you have a few of those lying around, that’s a good place to start.

How to select your Radio Mercury Awards entries: …Have a small focus group — play a few spots that [you're] thinking of entering and get some feedback … Ask people how they felt emotionally when they heard the spot.

That last bit of advice got me thinking.  Get some feedback.  Ask…

Often we’re so close to our own work, it’s difficult to be objective about it.  So, I decided to submit six commercials for feedback from my colleagues:

It’s been observed by many in our business that effective commercials don’t win awards. To the extent that this may be true, I believe it must apply to all media and not just radio. Advertisements that win awards for creativity may do nothing to improve the advertiser’s bottom line, whereas ads that “ring the cash register” tend to be work horses, not show ponies.

But it’s a wonderful thing when a racing thoroughbred rears its head to capture the imagination of radio listeners, bring riches to the advertiser, and win the approbation of the judges.

This happened to me in 2004, the very first time I entered the Radio Mercury Awards, with this spot.

Encouraged by that unexpected honor (and the $5000 prize that accompanied it), I entered again in 2005, with this commercial (featuring the irrepressible Darci).  This one made it to the final round of judging but did not win the award.

When Clear Channel held their one-and-only national E.A.R. awards competition in 2007, I entered this spot, testing the waters prior to the Mercury Awards.  It was a finalist in the CC competition, but didn’t make the Mercury cut.

Still, I’ve made it a point to enter at least a couple spots into the Mercury Awards competition each year, in part to support the cause but mainly to toss the dice.  I’ve crapped out ever since 2004, but not for want of trying.

A couple years ago, as you may recall, the Radio Station Produced category prize was not awarded at all; the panel of judges had determined that NONE of the entries was good enough. Their decision upset a lot of good radio people, some of whom thought their entry fees should have been refunded.

The Radio-Mercury folks responded by doubling last year’s category prize to $10,000.

That prize was awarded to Jerry Lee’s WBEB-FM for their entry, “Woodpecker,” the subject of which just happened to be (cue the trumpets): engaging radio commercials.

I was an early round judge and gave that spot my highest vote.  It deserved to win.

It may also serve as a kind of benchmark, in terms of its embodiment of the attributes that are likely to curry favor with judges.  Listen again to my friend Doug’s words:  It can be serious; it can be funny; it can even be sound effects. In my opinion, it all starts with the writing. It just has to make an impact…It needs to make people stop and think, ‘Wow, I really need to listen to this.’  If you have something that touts the power of Radio, that tends to be something that is appreciated and liked.

Last year’s winner was all of that.  It was larger than life.

By contrast, commercials crafted around real life, real people and real stories, regardless of how well they may play in the local marketplace, don’t seem as likely to impress a panel of creative types as those featuring a big voice, elaborate production, and edgy humor.

As much as one might wish it to be otherwise.

Sigh.

"Do you expect me to talk?" "No, Mr. Bond, I expect you to die."

“Choose your next witticism carefully, Mr. Bond.  It may be your last.”   -Auric Goldfinger to James Bond, who is about to be cut in half by a laser beam.
Bond: “Well, you’re forgetting one thing. If I fail to report, 008 replaces me.”
Goldfinger: I trust he will be more successful.
Bond: Well, he knows what I know.
Goldfinger: You know nothing, Mr. Bond.
Bond: Operation Grand Slam, for instance.
Goldfinger: Two words you may have overheard, which cannot have the slightest significance to you or anyone in your organization.
Bond: Can you afford to take that chance?
Goldfinger: [thinks for a moment, then orders the laser switched off] You are quite right, Mr. Bond. You are worth more to me alive.  (Source: IMDB)

Words have consequences.  Well-chosen words can have powerful consequences.  They can build businesses and careers, destroy reputations, even save one’s life.

Few people understood the power of the spoken word as well as the late Tony Schwartz, who passed away three years ago (June 15, 2008) at 84 years of age.

My first exposure to Tony Schwartz’s work was as a young boy in Chicago watching, spellbound, his now-legendary “Daisy” TV spot, which was broadcast – just once – eight days before my twelfth birthday.  (That was in 1964, the same year Goldfinger exploded onto the big screen, making another indelible impression on an impressionable adolescent’s mind.)

I don’t recall the particular movie we were watching that night, but I will never forget that commercial.

Although the controversial spot was pulled from the air shortly after that solitary airing, there’s no doubt that it had achieved its intended purpose.  Arousing Americans’ fears of unleashing a nuclear holocaust, it effectively halted Barry Goldwater’s 1964 presidential campaign in its tracks.

Without even mentioning his name.  (What a contrast to the heavy-handed mudslinging that passes for so much political advertising these days!)

Schwartz’s cause-related advertising campaigns again showed up on my radar screen in the late 1970′s, when I was working as a radio advertising sales manager and happened to run across an article from the September 1977 issue of Media Decisions.  According to the article, entitled “Media’s muscleman,” Schwartz was living across the street from John Jay College of Criminal Justice, when the New York Board of Education voted 10-0 to close the institution.  Schwartz “walked over to the president’s office and asked, ‘You want to save your college?’”  He offered to donate his services free of charge if the school would raise the money for media and production costs.

While the college solicited donations, Schwartz researched New Yorkers’ attitudes toward the college, crime in the city, and local politicians.  Thus armed, he wrote a series of radio spots “that literally shamed the town fathers into saving the school.”

“Did you ever wish there was some way to check up on politicians’ campaign promises?  In their last campaign, Governor [Hugh] Carey and Mayor [Abraham] Beame promised to do something about crime.  And they are.  They’re closing John Jay College.”

“We picked them off one by one,” Schwartz chortled afterwards, explaining that each of the people involved in the closing of John Jay was publicly singled out.

Bottom line?

Four weeks after the original vote, the board voted 9-0 (with one abstention) to keep the college open.

In addition, awareness of John Jay shot up from less than 5% to over 80%.  Enrollments rose by 500 over the previous year’s 800.  And school officials [predicted] at $600,000 increase in the school’s budget.

All this on a total media expense of $20,000.  And all from a campaign on two local radio stations, WMCA and highbrow WQXR.

Why did Schwartz use radio?

“Because radio is the most invisible and emotional of all media.”

He points out: “People don’t remember radio as a source of information because they don’t consciously listen to it.  Rather they bathe in it and sit in it.  Just as we are not conscious of our breathing, we are not actively aware of radio-mediated sound in our environment.  Yet we are deeply involved with radio, and we are strongly affected by radio programming that allows us to participate.”

I had occasion to correspond with Tony Schwartz a few times in the years before his passing.  He signed copies of his books, The Responsive Chord and Media The Second God, for me; his handwriting was a little shaky, but not so his mind.

One of the techniques I’ve used successfully in coaching clients who voice their own commercials was developed decades ago by Tony Schwartz.  He was able to coax amazing “natural” performances from very young children (such as the girl in the “Daisy” television spot) simply by having them listen to him reading the lines, and then mimic his delivery.

Schwartz’s use of broadcast advertising to create social change was ahead of its time. Decades before the Internet would make possible such viral campaigns as “United Breaks Guitars” (over 10,000,000 views on You Tube as of two years ago), Schwartz was laying a guilt trip on parents who smoke for setting up their own children to become nicotine addicts.  Tired of having to watch out for the little brown land mines that littered the sidewalks of his New York neighborhood, he went after dog owners who refused to clean up after their pets:

“The next time you see someone allowing their dog to ‘go’ on the sidewalk…don’t get mad at them.  Feel sorry for them.  Imagine.  This big person can’t even train his little dog.  Why, it’s the other way around.  The dog has trained him.  So don’t get too upset.  He really should be pitied.  You can’t tell which end of the leash the master is on.”

That particular campaign came to mind recently, when the president of the local garbage disposal company asked me to write a commercial to address the problem they were having on certain collection routes in the university district, where some residents were having a seemingly difficult time figuring out how properly to dispose of their trash.  I briefly envisioned the brilliant Bob Landers (the voice of choice for many of Tony Schwartz’s productions) behind the microphone, but it was the client himself who voiced the spot:  

What are you saying about your business these days?  Are you choosing your words carefully?  Deliberately?

More to the point: as though your business depended on them?

Because, well, it does.

His client, Mark, manages the local Chevrolet store and has been its radio spokesman for many years.  I learned that Mark writes all his own copy and his various media reps take turns recording and producing his spots, emailing copies to the other reps.

Here is the script we were to record last week, as written:

JUST WHAT YOU’VE BEEN LOOKING FOR… HI, MARK YRAZABAL AT CHIPMAN & TAYLOR CHEVROLET IN PULLMAN. THAT’S RIGHT, JUST THE RIGHT CAR FOR YOU, THE ALL NEW CHEVY CRUZE. IT’S GOT THE COMFORT AND CONVENIENCES OF A MUCH BIGGER CAR, COUPLED WITH THE PERFORMANCE AND HANDLING OF A SMALLER SPORTS CAR. IT OFFERS 5 STAR SAFETY, 10 AIR BAGS AND UP TO 42 MILES PER GALLON OR MORE. I HAVE SEVERAL TO CHOOSE FROM AND YOU CAN LEAS A NICELY EQUIPPED LS MODEL FOR ONLY $199 A MONTH PLUS TAX, FOR 39 MONTHS, WITH ONLY $1500 DOWN. ONCE YOU EXPERIENCE A CRUZE FOR YOURSELF, YOU’LL BEGIN TO UNDERSTAND WHAT A TREMENDOUS VALUE IT IS… SO COME SEE US WHILE SELECTION IS BEST ONLY AT CHIPMAN & TAYLOR IN PULLMAN…(JINGLE).

This was way too much copy for a thirty-second spot, especially one requiring an end-sing jingle, even for a fast reader such as Mark, so I offered to help him edit the copy on the fly. Even though he’s not my client, I treated him as though he were and refused to pull any punches.  To his credit, Mark quickly caught on to what I was attempting to do and was fully cooperative – to the point of agreeing to let me share the details of our session here for the benefit of aspiring copywriters.

First thing the commercial needed was a stronger opening line, one that would engage a prospective car buyer right from the get-go. “Just what you’ve been looking for” is at best presumptuous; at worst, a meaningless cliché and a waste of precious ad time. We changed it to get right to the point: “Is the all-new Chevy Cruze the right car for YOU?”

We got rid of “smaller” (redundant), “I have several to choose from” (well, duh), “nicely equipped” (auto dealer ad-speak), and “only” (unnecessary) in front of the $199.

We changed the declarative “Once you experience a Cruze for yourself, you’ll begin to understand…” to a less esoteric and more forceful exhortation: “So drive a Cruze and you’ll understand…”

Finally, we eliminated that last bit of auto dealer ad-speak, “So come see us while selection is best…” and—this may have been the most difficult thing for Mark to embrace, since it involved killing his darling (as my buddy Blaine Parker calls it)—we changed “only at” to “here at.”

Mark’s commercials have been running on the air for many years, always ending with that near-signature phrase, “only at.”  Having heard Mark’s commercials all those years without knowing that HE was the one writing them, I’d always assumed that this was his ad writer’s way of (subliminally?) suggesting to a prospect that there’s no need to shop anywhere else, only his dealership had this deal.  Now, if that were really the case – well, fine. But the truth of the matter is, this dealership ISN’T the “only” place to get this or any other deal.  The prospective car buyer knows this.  So why damage your credibility by implying something that isn’t true? (Yes, it’s a little thing – but I niggle over little things like this all the time when I’m writing ad copy.)  So, though not without a degree of reluctance, Mark agreed to kill his darling.

Here’s the commercial as it’s running on the air today. 

The question is: if you were in the market for a new, comfortable, fun-to-drive, fuel-efficient car, would this commercial engage your attention?

20 Years of Service

The year was 1991. A radio seller and sales manager was about to take the leap of faith familiar to all business owners.  For years, Rod Schwartz had been enjoying success selling his clients the services of Jim Shepler’s radio campaigns at Broadcast General Company–first as a salesman in Winona, MN, and then as a sales manager in Pullman, WA. But in 1990, Jim Shepler died, and Broadcast General Company closed its doors.       

Rod told Shepler’s heirs that he was interested in continuing the business and ended up acquiring its assets. As a result, Grace Broadcast Sales was born. Rod recalls, “For months I’d been pondering whether or not this was something I should do, praying for divine guidance. The answer came, unexpectedly and dramatically, in the form of two cardboard boxes—filled with floppy discs and manila folders containing Jim Shepler’s scripts, mailing lists, flyers—left on my porch by the UPS deliveryman. No invoice. No correspondence. Not even a return address! Now you know why the business is called ‘Grace’ Broadcast Sales.”

The first features produced by GBS were for Memorial Day 1991: a series of one-minute vignettes showcasing American servicemen whose gallantry in battle led to the bestowal of our nation’s highest military honor, The Congressional Medal of Honor. Today, twenty years later, “Above & Beyond” remains a favorite of many GBS clients, and it’s one of Rod’s as well. He says, “I still get goose bumps sometimes as I’m producing these features and thinking about the extraordinary character exhibited by these ordinary Americans, sacrificing their lives, in many cases, to preserve my freedom.”    

From the beginning, Grace Broadcast Sales was a family enterprise. Rod’s wife, Paula, and his daughters, Heather and Rebecca, all helped with the business.

Heather, Paula, Rebecca

“Paula did the bookkeeping, and all four of us did the mailings to stations. We’d stay up until late at night, sometimes into the wee hours of the morning, affixing mailing labels and stamps by hand” to the one-sheet flyers they sent to the stations on Shepler’s mailing list. Eventually the company expanded its mailings to stations across the country and did some advertising in trade publications as well. Rod also brought in several outside voice talents to broaden the appeal of his features.    

Over the years, GBS has added new campaigns for holidays, seasonal celebrations, and special events to its catalog. Some of these “Sales Boosters,” as they are now called, were developed in response to requests from radio station sales departments looking for new ideas to present to prospective advertisers.

One of GBS’s most popular campaigns, “Shop Your Hometown Merchants,” was created twelve years ago in response to two separate requests within the same week by station clients in North Carolina and Louisiana, each looking for a way to impress upon their listeners the importance of shopping locally. The campaign messages immediately caught on. According to Rod Schwartz, “We had stations call us after they started airing these features, blown away by the fact that advertisers were calling them, asking how they could be included in the campaign. How often does this happen in radio sales?”    

Because their May anniversary coincides with National Military Appreciation Month, Rod encourages interested stations to download two free features the company has produced to honor members of America’s armed forces.    

May 2011 also marks the second anniversary of RadioSalesCafe.com (RSC), a professional network established by GBS specifically for radio advertising sales executives.  “I’d thought of social networking sites like MySpace and then Facebook as something ‘the kids’ were doing, but by 2009 it had become evident that older people—and more to the point, business people—were starting to nibble around the edges of the phenomenon. So, I asked my younger daughter, Rebecca, to research the applicability of social networking to our  business.” Rebecca saw an opportunity to provide a unique service specifically for radio advertising sales people, and urged quick action. Rod agreed to fund it, and he put her in charge of developing the site. Rod then asked a number of GBS’s best clients to visit the site, contribute comments, and offer feedback. A few weeks later, Radio Sales Café was officially launched; stations embraced it immediately. According to Rod, “Two years later, RSC has become a thriving, vibrant community of more than 1800 radio sales professionals from all over the world, with a passion for radio and their own work, sharing ideas and helping one another solve day-to-day problems.” (Thanks to SMRN publisher and editor Jay Mitchell for his encouragement and support of GBS and for his kind words. -RS)

It hardly feels like twenty years, until I start thinking about some of the things that are different now from what they were the year we started GBS.  In 1991, personal computing was slowly creeping into the mainstream (MS-DOS 5.0 was introduced that year), but photocopiers and fax machines were the instruments by which most small businesses transferred data.  Radio production was still being done on magnetic tape: reels, carts, cassettes.  Commercials from distant production houses were sent to radio stations by US Mail (although I recall one time when the USPS sent us their commercials via UPS Ground! True fact.)  And if they absolutely, positively had to get there overnight, they were sent by FedEx.  Mp3′s, FTP, email and the World Wide Web were still waiting in the wings.

I’d shared my aspirations to produce the Memorial Day series with my boss, Bill Weed, who expressed his support and offered me the use of the radio station’s production room at night to record the features.  He even let me make some calls to stations from the office.

The GBS “demo line” was an answering machine hooked up to our home phone.  A few years later, we were able to rent a voicemail box for that purpose.  The features purchased by our very first radio clients were dubbed cassette-to-cassette on a “boom box.”  High tech, indeed.  But we did the best we could until we were able to afford professional recording and duplicating equipment.  Paula did the bookkeeping manually, entering each transaction by hand into a Dome’s Book.

Amazingly, a few of our original clients are still clients, 20 years later!  They’ve endured our growing pains and occasional setbacks, encouraged our efforts, cheered our successes…and given us the privilege of serving them all these years.  They’ve seen us move from reels and cassettes to CD’s, then to online demos and MP3 downloads, available 24/7 at our client-friendly website created and maintained by my lovely webmistress (Paula).   Email has replaced direct mail, and now we’re Facebooking and Tweeting, Skyping and networking, blogging…

And just now, taking a few minutes to look back.

Twenty years is the blink of an eye.   Yet how much has happened in the space of that blink!

Not surprisingly, their unfortunate experience isn’t an isolated incident. 

Did you happen to see this article from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel?  I read it in a local paper.  It details a Milwaukee restaurant owner’s costly experience with Groupon.

Suzzette Metcalfe, owner of Milwaukee’s Pasta Tree restaurant, picked up some marketing advice at a recent restaurant industry seminar in Las Vegas: Do not do Groupon.

“But I’d already done it,” Metcalfe said.

As I read the article, I was struck by the similarity of Groupon-style offers to another promotion popular with consumers: the Going Out of Business Sale.

Both promotions attract the very same customers—and for the very same reason: a ridiculously low price.  Period.  End of story.

Of COURSE shoppers will flock to your 50-80% off sale!   Who wouldn’t take a deal like that?

Of COURSE shoppers will strip your business to the bone, if you give them permission to do so.  That’s just the nature of consumerism.

At first blush, the idea of attracting throngs to your business might seem enticing.  I can just hear the Groupon salesman singing his siren song. “Wouldn’t you love to have hundreds, even thousands of new customers come into your business?”

If you care about the health of your business, my friend, you’ll think twice before taking the bait.  Because the important question isn’t: Is This a Good Deal?

The real question is: Is This a Good Deal FOR YOU?!

Remember, consumers attracted to bottom-feeder prices don’t care a whit whether your store ever makes a profit, or even whether you stay in business.  There are other places to shop after you’ve closed up.

“The desire for instant gratification.”  It tops Roy Williams’ list of The Twelve Most Common Mistakes in Advertising.  The desire for instant gratification is what will drive most retailers to try a Groupon-style promotion.

And methinks it might also drive them out of business if they don’t stop to give it a second thought.